Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Alexander Winfield
is a Bermudian-born puppeteer and theatre maker who
worked as a freelance puppeteer for six years in Canada. He recently
made the
move to London to complete an MA at the Central School of Speech and
Drama and continues to perform at festivals, theatres, and puppet
slams around Europe. With Cryptid Theatre he recently helped host the
first
Pirate Puppet Cabaret at the Battersea Barge. He has a fondness for
dreams,
nightmares, the surreal and the stranger corners of human life.

Marsian: What is the
funniest, freakiest, edgiest, or weirdest piece you have
seen?

AW:The Left Hand of Frank by Frank Meschkuleit, a fellow
Canadian: it’s essentially a one-man cabaret show and is alternatively
hilarious and thoughtful. I’d also have to mention Famous Puppet Death Scenes,
by the Old Trout Theatre in Calgary.

AW: No one seems to have heard of them here, but the
show is a tour-de-force of puppetry styles, full of variety and humour, as well
as several truly moving pieces. With lots of Puppet Death.

M: What was the worst
puppet slam you’ve been to?

AW: I can’t say I’ve ever
been to a disastrous Puppet Slam, sorry! One slam I did attend was a bit
awkward: it emphasized audience participation, insisting space be left for the
public to contribute to the work. Unfortunately it underestimated the
audience’s bravery, leading to long passages of awkward silence!

M: Is there a slam
circuit around London?

AW: One of the advantages
of London is that it is so very close to so many places. Europe is full of
puppet festivals (not quite slams, but still), and with a bit of planning you
could fill a year with touring. Little Angel does host puppet slams, though it
calls it a scratch night: the Hatch festival. Everything is a festival over
here, makes it sound proper. The Tara Arts Studio, in the south of London, has
hosted Puppetry Snax, a slam/scratch night produced in collaboration with the
Puppet Centre. The Puppet Centre and the Battersea Arts Centre is also known to
host slams/festivals that are puppet friendly.

M: Interesting that they call them “scratch”
nights in London - sounds itchy. We have have Pandemics here.. Tell us about a fabulous failure and what you've learned from it.

AW: I’ve learned to be
wary of improv, and of audience participation. You can meet an audience, bring
a puppet to them, but relying on them to supply half a story is dangerous, and
in any case it’s probably unfair to charge a person a ticket price if they’re
doing half the work. I saw an improv act
kept asking the audience questions about where to proceed next – it was
difficult, and the audience were getting tired of it. I learned that while
improv with puppets can be exciting, it’s always important to present
‘something’ to an audience, and to make the interaction feel like part of the
show rather than work asked of them.

M: What pieces do you
have in circulation to perform in slams?

AW: I have All Hail Ye Mighty Lords of Nowhere, a
post-apocalyptic puppet show that I’ve described as William Blake meets Punch
and Judy. Two demons are all that remain on the earth, and realize that by
wiping out the human race they annihilated all chance they have of ever having
fun again. There is The Man Who Lived in the Road about a man who wakes up in
the middle of a road with no memory of who he is or how he got there. With no
other humans about, he learns to live a life of loneliness.

M: That kinda hits close to home. Anything else?

AW: Then there is Horus the God, about the Egyptian god Horus, now retired and living in a
council flat.

M: What inspires you
to create a puppet slam piece?

"Inspiration can come from many
sources: a banal occurrence seen while walking home, a dream, a piece from a
history book. Who knows? Inspiration is a funny beast."

AW: In Malaysia they call
artistic inspiration ‘agin’, meaning, literally, ‘the wind’ It can drive a man
to make miracles, but if neglected it can drive an artist mad, it can eat him alive
from the inside. So perhaps that’s the answer: I don’t want to be eaten alive.

M: Why do you think Puppet
Slams are important?

AW: Puppet slams provide a space where
beginning puppeteers can suck with permission. No live performance can have its
kinks ironed out without test trials before a live audience, and slams allow
puppeteers a space to hurl themselves at the public, and feel what parts of a
show work and what parts do not. Puppet Cabarets will continue parallel to the
rising popularity of live puppetry – and help to spread a love of puppetry to
new audiences.

M: That's lovely! And what advice do you
have for up and coming slam artists?

AW: Don’t be afraid of failing
miserably, or looking like an idiot. There is nothing so dangerous, nor full of
potential, as a man unafraid of looking like an idiot. Try not to make a habit
of it, is all.

M: Anything else we
should know?

AW: I have a strange fascination with
Cephalopods, and would love to do a show featuring a giant squid (one of the
great marionette performances on film belongs to the giant squid in 20,000
leagues under the sea!). Other than that, expect the unexpected, and always
bring an umbrella wherever you go.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Alexander Winfield
is a Bermudian-born puppeteer and theatre maker who
worked as a freelance puppeteer for six years in Canada. He recently
made the
move to London to complete an MA at the Central School of Speech and
Drama and continues to perform at festivals, theatres, and puppet
slams around Europe. With Cryptid Theatre he recently helped host the
first
Pirate Puppet Cabaret at the Battersea Barge. He has a fondness for
dreams,
nightmares, the surreal and the stranger corners of human life.

Marsian: I'm so glad
our mutual friend Andrew Young from the Puppet Vision Blog put us in touch and
told us about your Pirate Puppet Cabaret!

Alexander Winfield: Andrew is
definitely one to watch.

M: How did you go from Bermuda to London?

AW: Via a long, twisting road. I lived
and worked as a puppeteer in Toronto for several years, before heading to the
UK to take an MA in theatre studies at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Intrigued by the explosion in puppet theatre that spreading across Europe at
the moment, I decided to stick around.

M: How did you enter
the world of puppetry what was it like to start hosting puppet cabarets?
What other cities have you performed at puppet slams in?

AW: I’ve always had a fascination for
puppets. I remember putting on impromptu puppet shows with my brother, using
our bunk bed as a stage.

M: How Bromantic..

AW:
I re-entered the
world of puppetry as an adult shortly after seeing some Hun Lakhon Lek -
a form
of Thai Puppetry – enacting the story of the Ramayana. It was absurdly
entertaining. I then made several short films that featured
puppetry, including Christ in Wood,
which featured a wooden Christ coming to life and being a general nuisance.

M: Yes, we have a contingent of Bible-puppeteers
in the States, but your puppet flick sounds way cooler.

AW: That all got me
thinking about puppetry again, and eventually I was inspired to start working
with puppets by any means necessary. I didn’t really care for the hows of it –
I started with street shows performed in a stage made of burlap. I was very
poor at the time, and could afford little else. I was finally making money off
my art, a fine thing, and that was the start.

M: I love burlap to riches stories! So after you got street cred, then
you got kidnapped by pirates?

AW: The Pirate Puppet
Cabaret was the first puppet slam I helped produce. It was a lot of work! There are many puppeteers in London, though
they tend to be a scattered and insular breed, like all puppeteers. As a
newcomer to the city, and unattached to any larger organizations or theatres
whose name might be recognized, it was a challenge to get puppeteers to perform
with little unknown me. Keeping the
event profit-share, ensuring the puppeteers aren’t working for free, helped a
lot.

M: Have you performed at other puppet slams?

AW: As for when I’ve
performed at Puppet Slams, I don’t know I’ve performed at many outside of
London (they seem to be, still, somewhat rare creatures). I’ve performed my own
shows at festivals and theatres in Montreal, Toronto, Waterloo (Ontario),
London (UK), Oxford (UK), Charleville-Mezieres (France), Tolouse (France) and
Hamilton (Bermuda) among others.

M: Damn! And you after all that, you hosted the Pirate
Puppet Cabaret.

AW: My slam was undoubtedly
smaller than most other slams I’ve seen, not surprising as it was the first I
hosted. The space was quite unique – the Battersea Barge, a barge outfitted as
a bar/restaurant, at dock on the southern banks of the Thames. To access it you
had to walk through about a half mile of alleyways and lamp-lit construction
sites. That provided much of our atmosphere.

“At no other slam I’ve attended were the acts
interrupted by the actions of waves against the barge. Our sea-legs were sorely
tested.”

M: And how did the pirates get involved?AW: I’ve always been interested in
pirates as icons. Scabbish and unruly, the pirate ship was one of the first
functioning democracies in western society, with captains elected by popular
vote. Ruthless and violent, they were also known as ‘free men’, men (and women)
who had made a break with society and large, and sailed under their own flags.
These seeming contradictions have a particular resonance now, when there is
much talk of society growing colder and harder, and where there seem to be no
free seas left to sail in.

M: Tell me about it!
No, really, tell me about some of the acts..

AW: What we had was very
strong – an excellent, atmospheric piece carved out of lights and cardboard, a
puppet strip-tease, and a commentary on humankind by demonic puppets. The
cardboard piece was by Max McBride, a San Francisco artist and puppeteer whose
specialty is making miracles out of ‘mundane’ materials. The strip tease was by
Aya Nakamura, a member of Rouge 28 theatre, whose work can be seen at www.ayanakamura.com

M: Join us for part 2 of our very special interview with Andrew Winfield...

Friday, April 20, 2012

Kat
Pleviak, curator of Puppet Meltdown, lives in Chicago where she is also the founder and artistic director of Sea Beast Puppet Company.Under
Kat's direction, Sea Beast has initiated a number of exciting puppetry
projects including a series of touring family friendly puppet
productions, the Gorilla Puppetry
Project, and Puppet Meltdown Puppet Slam. Kat has an MFA In Youth Theatre and Puppetry from
the University of Hawaii Manoa.

Kat Pleviak: The first slam I performed in was in 2007 at Puppet Rampage at the National festival. The piece was called Naughty Nursery Rhymes and told
the story of Jack and Jill as nasty little rag doll children. If you
have the Puppet Rampage DVD there is a very short clip of that
performance.

M: How do your puppet slam pieces tie into the other kinds of puppetry, performance
or your art-life at large?

KP: They are a great outlet for us to experiment
with technique and subject matter. My company, Sea Beast Puppet
Company, primarily does family friendly touring shows, so doing short and
adult pieces allows us to grow and explore our creativity.

M: What
cities have you performed in puppet slams or cabarets in? Which was the
furthest or most exotic?

M: What is
the funniest, freakiest, edgiest, or weirdest show you have seen?

KP: The
first slam I ever went to was at a nation festival in 2005. A woman there
did a shadow piece about the holocaust that was amazing and gave me a
lot to think about in terms of what you can do with a short puppet piece.

M: What was the worst puppet slam you performed at and why? What made it
disastrous?

KP: I was in a slam at a puppet festival and we were asked to
bring 2 pieces, one of which was cut because the slam went to long. The
piece we did show was too small for the space to be seen by anyone in the venue so no
one got to enjoy it.

"A note to producers: Your slam performers are your
guests and it should be your number one goal to help them succeed and
have a great experience. A note to performers: be true to your work. If
you walk into an event and can see your piece won't work, pull it. It
does not help you to do a piece that disappoints based on a technicality.
Know your work and show it to it's best."

M: If you were to form a puppet slam circuit near you for touring, what
slams/cities would this include?

KP: Chicago, Champaign, Bloomington, Evanston, Madison, Minneapolis

M: Tell us about a fabulous failure (at a slam) and what you've learned
from it.

KP: The first slam we ever did had strict guidelines in terms of
time and when a few acts went long, we ran over and did not get a curtain
call. I think it is so important to recognize your performers. To fix
this, we now always plan to have our company represented with a few pieces,
some of which are scheduled to go last. This way, if we run long we can cut our own work, to enable recognition of the invited performers.

M: Why are Puppet Slams important to you?

KP: They give
us a chance to experiment and grow as artists, while connecting with
like minded individuals.

M: What inspires you to create a puppet slam piece?

KP: Usually things that make me laughM: Who are some other artists on the puppet slam circuit that you are
inspired
by?

KP:Carole D'Agostino does "Object Theater
Time" which is puppet improv, always amazing and my brother Tom. He has
performed in a number of slam pieces and his characters are always
amazing.

M: What pieces do you have in circulation to perform in puppet slams?

KP: I have a bunch but two of my
favorites are Another Man Treasure. This piece is in miniature and tells
the story of a mouse and a robot living in a trash heap - I love this
piece because we film it live and project it live as a film. The other is
called Road Rage and is a shadow piece about an angry driver. I made Road Rage while studying with Richard Bradshaw at the O'Neill Puppetry
Conference.
M: Where can people contact you to perform?

Come celebrate after a day of great displays of common interest and shared physical expression. Contemplate the power that arises from collectively withdrawing cooperation and consent, however you do it...

1. Stagger Back Brass BandCelebrating the 6th annual Stagger Back Brass Band May Day concert/singalong/

4. A May Day Crankie by Vermont puppeteer and filmmaker Meredith Holch

5. "Bloomberg’s Fifth Largest Army in the World: Puppet Study #1"
Puppeteer Maura Gahan teams up with Brookyn-based Jacobs/Campbell Dance for a brand new work. Dancers shout, spit, and high kick in cardboard masks with movement references from the 1930s Workers Dance League, Mayor Bloomberg, and N.Y.C.’s finest dancers: the NYPD.

Food and drink will be available throughout the night.
Please come by and share stories of how you occupied your May Day!

"PSN Friends - was wondering how you
cite your work as a Slam Performer and/or Producer on your resume?"

What started out as a discussion on résumé advice, quickly turned into a broader conversation on how we value our work and interface with the rest of the performing arts world. A number of slam organizers and performers weighed in and here are some highlights. Note: If you have anything to add, please join the conversation on our Facebook Page or start your own conversation.

If it's performance-based -
"Puppeteer", "Puppet Showplace Slam", or if administrative, "Producer/Curator","Puppet Showplace Slam". I have never really seen a resume that
successfully integrates performance and production responsibilities,
other than making one or the other just a brief footnote (i.e. my
production admin resume includes "puppetry" in the "miscellaneous
skills" section)

It does depend on what job
you're applying for. What type of job do you think would be most
interested in hearing about producing work? If you are auditioning for a
role, do they want to know you produce as well?

I
have a separate section in my resume about "Personal Productions" - my
own work. I simply state the title, the subject and the genre so: Flirty
Birdie/Cabaret Style Peacock/Marionette". Or: "The Hoarding
Show/Satirical History of Hoarding/Tabletop and Shadows", "Object Theater". Anyone who is asking for my resume doesn't care about what the venue
is - slams or not. If they are asking me for my resume then they don't
know me - all they care about is - can she do the specific thing I need
for this job - so - can she do marionettes? Fine. Can she do green
screen? Black light/ Whatever. No one actually cares what you did- they
care who you know and if you have that one thing they need. . . That said - if you perform at a National Festival- or a major venue - you might say you performed there

Personal productions. . ..I
like it. . . But I wonder if there's another way to phrase it. Self
produced? or Independent Projects? Carole - you deserve a producer credit for all the work you've created. . . it's hard to sum up in one title.

Well everyone's resume is
individualized- and I will customize my own resumes to suit the client-
some people don't care if I can build. I have a show resume. Some
people don't care if I can make puppets- I have a costume resume. I am
not sure who to define "producer' but I do know if I put THAT on a
resume an "actual" producer will think he can't afford me and I won't
get hired.

It's complicated. . . "Producer" can encompass so many duties. It's hard to know when it's a useful to post on a resume. . . I wonder what Katie McClenahan
of Beady Little Eye Puppet Slam thinks of all this. .. She also helps
produce photo shoots. . . Do the same skills apply to other fields?

i am dirt handed, under the
table, and ghetto. i have never made a resume. i am sure if you live in
NYC or LA a resume for a big puppet job is proper but here in north
carolina, you just have to tell em you do and puppet show and most the
time, yer in....

No
one has mentioned it yet, but I think calling slam production "event
management" is a nice, palatable alternative when you think "producer"
might complicate things... As for a
performance resume: I do a similar thing
to Carole; I have a section for Personal Productions, and I give a
one-sentence overview of the scope of each {ex: "Original 30m marionette
production with troupe of 3 performers, production sponsored by CFL
ArtsFest"}. If the job calls for skills that are specific, like hand/rod
work, I also put a list of bullet point summaries at the top of the
resume describing jobs I've done with the most relevant skills called
"Recent Achievements" or something bilious thing like that, where I list
3-4 specific challenges or performance triumphs that relate.

pretty much the same. for a
decade i opened for rock bands in bars and clubs. i had a couple good
booking guys who would basically call me up whenever they had a "weird"
or "art rock " band. and 80% of the time i was a fan of the band.
needless to say, i have never been able to completely support myself
with my art and have always had some sort of shit job that eats up most
of my time.

Amy Rush - Performer-at-Large #Atlanta:

You need a resume in Atlanta.
Or should. I've noticed that local people list puppet slam or
Xperimental Puppetry Theater (at the Center for Puppetry Arts - which is
like a large-scale slam/workshop) pieces that they've performed in (not
produced) and that's weird to me. Seems
like a desperate move. They are listed alongside large-scale work. Or,
as though they ARE large scale because the performer hasn't really done
anything but little slams. I mean, if you PRODUCE a slam
production/night - list it. If you've PRODUCED/DIRECTED/PAID FOR a piece
in XPT at the CforPA, list it. Mine are listed under "self-produced."
Some of those pieces at XPT have gone beyond XPT - to the National
Festival and a local fringe festival, for example. Gotta list that. As far as listing individual, one-or-two-time puppet slam pieces in my
performance resume goes, I never would, but our slams are pretty loose
and fun/drunk/easy down here. And they're like 5 minutes long. It's not
the same as a marionette piece you developed at the O'Neill and have
traveled the country with (I can name a few folks who have done this, of
course and they rock!). That's different. List that - a small cabaret
piece.

I like Carole D'Agostino's
idea of having a section about "Personal Projects" or "Self Produced"
section. Would that work?... I think that's important, but it's hard to
list on a resume. I find most Puppet Slam artists are self starters.

I wonder, then, if a resume
is the right document for showing your work? It might be that the resume
should highlight and point to certain things, and a portfolio or a
"list of original pieces" or "current repertory" is what you need in
addition. Or a website? What is this for?

Honey, your right about the "self starters" and if I had $1 for every time The Puppet Co. Playhouse positioned that I "was not a producer," well, we know how that would end ha. The PuppetCo Playhouse is more "the producer," per se, with their
amazing puppet-ready venue, classy theatre/backstage and all those
beautiful, full-sized velour curtains. My job is to find the right
collection of pieces among the small pool of willing and/or able &
available puppet artists that live here in the D.C. area.

For one of my resumes - the " arts professional" version, here is an example:

Curator, Playhouse Puppetry SLAM!, 2009 - present.

A showcase of
vignettes aimed at mature audiences. Assembled and communicated with
puppeteers, musicians, backstage crews and the Puppet Co. staff in
months prior to slam as well as during the event. Sold playbill
advertising. Designed posters and press graphics. Arranged and selected
live music setlists. Coordinated, choreographed and co-wrote opening and
closing numbers. Performed as a puppeteer and musician.

• Founded slam
program at the Puppet Co., curating six slams to date

• Established and
maintained relationships with puppetry networks throughout the East
Coast

For the record- nobody reads
that. I've asked tons of hiring types- they scan for key words- they
need a rod puppeteer- they scan for "rod" and "puppet". At least in NY.
And It's true- most of my jobs come from recommendations and referrals.
If they re asking for my resume at all, I know they have little
interest in who I am as an artist- they just need to have a placeholder
for me in the cattle call. More often than not, I get hired to the job-
THEN they see my credientials and go- oh! You've done a lot of work!
yeah- so maybe how 'bout paying me what i'm worth.

I was thrilled about Beau Brown's
proposal of the National Puppet Slam - I think it validates the work of
the Slam Artist. And the success of his Slams a the POA Festival spoke
voluminous about the type of work that can be produced in 7 mins of
stage time (or less).

.. I think its hard to represent all the things that puppet and generative artists do in one document
for all purposes and I would love to see how other people address that.
I am curious what other categories people include in their puppet
artist resumes. Personally, I list "Major Performance Works" (shows
that usually they had a premiere and little pieces had been workshopped
at slams - I write a short one line description). Then I also include
"Other Performance Works" - this category could be one-off shows, shows
where I performed for somebody else in a role, and occasionally a slam
piece that was performed more than once that I feel was important or at a
fabulous venue that I am proud of

I agree with Marsian,
you have to tailor your resume depending on the job you are applying
for. I have several different resumes and would revise for each
position applied to. I'll include notes harkening to producer-like
qualities, but I wouldn't list every slam I'm produced on a resume for
an audition. Producer = professional organizer.

I
want to second Carole's comment about jobs coming from referrals... I
don't think I've actually USED my resume for anything except grant,
workshop, or award applications in over 4 years. Before I began working
in the arts, I worked in project
management, and reviewed many resumes to fill positions on my teams. I
didn't care about long boring descriptions of jobs at all... like Carole
says, in general, people know what the basic responsibilities of a job
are; what they're interested in are things that relate to what they need
you to do or crazy, amazing success that you could possibly repeat for
them.

Key words and brevity were
what I appreciated; not only did it tell me what I needed to know
quickly, it also told me that the person applying was an effective
communicator and not filled with a sense of self-importance (or have low
self esteem and overcompensate for it)
that might make them difficult to work with. No matter what the field
you're applying for, I think that a resume with a brief section at top
(3-4 bullets) that summarize your biggest accomplishments OR a short
summary of your career paragraph followed by 2 lines of 3 bulleted "area
of expertise" key words AND fits your career history & relevant
training/education onto one page is the absolute most effective,
particularly if sent with a strong cover letter.

Keep in mind: you DO NOT have
to explain what your responsibilities were at a previous job. A title
is really, truly enough. The resume is just to get you in the door: the
interview is the time to elaborate on unusual challenges you took on
under those titles. Okay, super long commenting done now.

I agree with Marsian, Carole and Hannah here, but the biggest snag that I run in to is that different organizations in D.C. have separate expectations of what they want to see or know about a possible candidate. Puppetry is not viewed the same way here as it is in NYC, LA, Boston and Orlando. I have found that people here WANT to know a fair amount of the minutia, even though I think that its unnecessary, too. Few people here have two clues what a puppet slam event coordinator, producer or curator is, let alone a puppet slam!

Of the 6 or 7 actual puppet operations in the DC area, they generally keep to themselves, rarely collaborate with one another (if they ever do) and are not very often placed in positions to vouch for another puppeteer or help find them work, unless they are offering work themselves...

Then there are
the DC area theatres, a different puppet market. They want to include
puppetry in their productions, as they should, but they "just want to
find someone to build their puppets." They are not often searching for
the professionals out there who know what they are doing rather, they
would be content to expect a general props artisan or costumer with no
prior puppet construction experience to make beautiful figures that work
even more beautifully. Sometimes they succeed but then again, they
often fail and in so doing, they perpetuate more bad puppetry. So it can
be a challenge in this area to shine above in an area of mostly
non-puppeteers in order to land steady puppet work.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Deborah Hunt, curator of Sobre La Mesa Puppet Slam
and co-curator of Noches de Cabaret has been performing with masks and puppets for the last 35
years. Originally from New Zealand, she has had the privilege of performing and
leading workshops in many parts of the world. For the last two decades she has
lived in Puerto Rico.

Deborah Hunt:
In 2008 I created a project called “Sobre la mesa”, a small format puppet
challenge of tiny scenes inside a labyrinth of cloth. I gave each puppeteer the
same object and suggested that we each create a 4 minute scene using the object
as a point of departure. Each puppeteer has his/her kiosk and space for 6
people to observe the performance. At the end of the specified time music plays
and the public move to the next kiosk. As
they are moving the puppeteer resets his/her piece to repeat it to the new
audience entering the kiosk. This was my first slam.

M:
How do your puppet slam pieces tie into the other kinds of puppetry, performance
or your art-life at large?

DH:
Sometimes I create pieces that then become part of other larger works….so in a
way the slams are “breeding grounds” for further work. They give me a
chance to experiment with a new technique, mechanism, or personal challenge.

M: What inspired you to start hosting
Sobre la Mesa and Noches de Cabaret?

DH:
Well, I have talked about “Sobre la mesa”…which is now in its 9th
edition. Generally it happens twice a year. Noches de Cabaret is an adult slam
that is part of the Titeretada, which is our celebration of World Puppetry
Day…we usually have events over a 2-6 week time period. We invite other puppeteers
to present short pieces for adults.

M:
Who exactly is “We”?

DH:
”We” is a committee made up of individuals or representatives of distinct
groups interested in broadening the horizons for adult puppetry work (Papel
Machete, Mary Anne Hopgood, Teatro Aspaviento, Y No Habia Luz and myself.)

M:
How did you end up living in SanJuan?

DH:
My ex husband.

M:
I see… And what is the puppet scene like there?

The
puppet scene is pretty much divided into 2 groups…companies that have been
working a long time through within the education system and for
children’s/family audiences,…and us…a coalition of individuals and companies
dedicated to performing for largely adult audiences… we host the only puppet
slams in town.

M:
If you were to form a puppet slam circuit near you for touring, what
slams/cities would this include?

DH:
We live on an island in the Caribbean. So the closest place would be the
Dominican Republic. We would love to create a Caribbean circuit…

M:
I can think a lot of people would love that.. Please keep us posted!Why
are Puppet Slams important to you?

DH:
Here in Puerto Rico, the development of adult audiences has been extremely
important to me and to my fellow collaborators. So the puppet slams are
definitely a way of attracting both puppeteers and public interested in adult
work. The slams give us a grand opportunity to experiment.

M:
What inspires you to create a puppet slam piece?

DH:
The shortness of time inspires me. To create a succinct piece that adds to an
evening’s intrigue gets my juices going.
M: What pieces do you have in circulation at puppet slams?

DH:
Personally, each year in the Noches de Cabaret Puppet slam, I perform as
“Mission Educativa”, a character that basically forces everyone in the audience
to make a puppet.

M:
Where can people contact you to perform?

DH:
maskhunt@gmail.com

M:
Where would you like to see the Puppet Slam Network in the future?

DH:
All over….the world

M:
What advice do you have for up and coming slam artists just starting out?

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Enda O. Breadon
curates the Kolohe Puppet Slam in Honolulu and has worked as an actor,
director, movement coach and playwright across the United States and
Europe. As a teaching artist in creative
drama, Enda employs both clowning and puppetry.
His lifelong love of puppets has led him to include them in a number of
shows that he’s written and directed.
While living in Atlanta, he was mentored by Clint Thornton and Spencer
Stephens, who he met at the Center for Puppetry Arts. Enda briefly studied
puppetry at the University of Hawai’i.

M: Is Honolulu part of a slam circuit?

EB: For all practical purposes, the answer to all of that is “no.” There’s a really great, fairly new burlesque
troupe here in Honolulu, Cherry Blossom Cabaret. Last October Chinatown hosted Hawai’i’s first
ever fringe festival and there’s a new, unnamed clown/physical theatre workshop
that is about two months old, so there’s a young art scene with a lot of chance
for overlap that hasn’t fully materialized as strongly as I feel it is about
to. And in fact, it was a connection
through Cherry Blossom that we were able to get a new location for the slam
this month. I’m told some of the Cherry
Blossom dancers will make appearances in slams/cabarets on the west coast,
particularly the Bay area. But most
local artists don’t think in terms of circuit because this is an expensive rock
fly on and off of - San Diego is as close to New York as it is to Honolulu.

M: Dang!

EB: And while our economy depends on it, the idea that this is place is
some kind of theme park in the middle of the ocean, doesn’t encourage artistic
interaction. We’ve seen a lot of people
come out here, give a half-ass performance because they really just want to be
on vacation and then book it out of here.
Because of what we get from national performers some people here really
believe we are a “less-than” destination artistically and there are others that
look at what we get from the outside and have a really low aesthetic bar – it’s
a cycle. That said, there have been some
really great performers who have come through and some promoters doing yeoman’s
work, but they are in the minority. I
hope both Kolohe Puppet Slam and our fringe festival become a destination for
West Coast artists and are part of encouraging local artists to start thinking
in terms of a circuit and getting their work out there. But if it happens it’ll probably take some
time.

M:
Tell us about a fabulous failure and what you've learned from it.
EB: Well, just this week I feel like I’ve experienced one of my biggest
failures to date. Between what felt like
the great success of the first slam in February, I ran into some problems. As I’ve said, I just directed Inspector General for TAG, a show with
live actors and two different kinds of puppets that play minor characters. Literally, the night Inspector opened several of TAG’s board members complained that
sock puppets have no place on the TAG stage and are “not to the quality of what we do.”
The poster and all the promotional material used had the sock
puppets to promote the show, but apparently that somehow got past the attention
of some board members. And they
apparently hadn’t talked to the Artistic Director, who’d been talking excitedly
about the puppets for around six months before the show ever went into
rehearsal. At this point, I must take pains to again thank Brad Powell, TAG’s
Artistic Director. He went to the mat to
defend both the puppets in Inspector and
to defend the slam to his board. But
after some of the longest days I’ve ever experienced, it was clear that it was
not in the best interest of the slam or of TAG to hold a puppet slam at a
theatre where there were hostile board members.

M: So I guess we won’t be seeing the Lion King or Warhorse at TAG any
time soon…

EB: The stress and potential for unhealthy resentment abounded. But I’m trying to stay positive, I went to a
hippy-ish Franciscan-nun-run elementary school.
I wish TAG nothing but success in their puppet-less future.

M: ::Sigh::

EB: A friend and fellow artist here in Honolulu gave me a “buck up” talk
the other day saying that this was a lesson about focusing on the kind of work
you want to do and making your own opportunities. I guess that’s as good as a lesson as
any. This is all just in the last week,
maybe after a few months of reflection I’ll have a real good perspective about
what the moral of this tale is.

Again, if there are other curators who have walked through similar
experiences please, please, please
email or call me. I’d love to hear how
others handled it so I can properly reflect and learn from the situation.

M: Please post that on our Facebook page, a great place to
dialogue with other slam organizers…Why do you think Puppet Slams are important

EB: For me, puppet slams are all about 2 things: 1) getting a chance to
workshop your material and 2) experiencing the other puppeteers in your
community/circuit. We all know that not
every idea we have is worth pushing to a full piece, that some of the best
pieces need a lot of work to get good, and that pieces are awesome as short
pieces.

We also all know that getting to interact with other artists
fills-the-well and motivates us to do more and better work. The proverbial rising tide raises all the
proverbial boats until the sailors puke over the proverbial sides.

And to a much lesser degree, it gives people a chance to see artists grow
through their career in the same way music fans like to talk about the
difference between an early album/show and what a band is doing in their
40s. I think what Patton Oswalt is doing
with the Comedians of Comedy is pretty much the same thing we’re trying to do
with slams.

M:
What motivates you to create a puppet slam piece?EB: The same sick thing in my soul
that got me kicked out of class almost every single day of my elementary,
middle and high school career.

M:
Which slam artists you are inspired by?

EB: I’ve already mentioned Nicole earlier. Her ideas and enthusiasm are inspiring. My friends Gregg Van Laningham and Qate Bean
have some characters they’ve been working on the Atlanta puppet slam circuit
that are apparently illicit in the slams and yet they get requests to do them
at the kid’s birthday parties too. So
while I haven’t seen them live, the fact they have dirty puppets also
performing kids’ parties is among the funniest things I’ve ever heard. They’re great writers, even though I suspect
they wouldn’t use the word “writer” to describe themselves.

Speaking of writers, while not puppeteers, there are two writing
partners that constantly inspire me and the ideas we bounce around are starting
to make it into some of my pieces. First
is Joe Goltz, the funniest human being, period.
He’s a musician and part of the comedy scene in Chicago. But Joe and I have been friends since
elementary school and it was scripts we wrote in radio and TV class in high
school that not only got me suspended but made me really want to create for
life. Second is Lani Murray, who first
came up with the idea of a dirty Bronte puppet piece. I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy a relationship
with someone 45 years older than me that is more raunchy or fulfilling. M: What pieces do you have in
circulation to perform in puppet slams?

EB: Hopefully the Bronte piece soon.
I think I’m going to retire the Russian sock puppets, at least for a
while. It might just bring up stressful
memories of the TAG situation. I’m thinking of bringing back the dog chases
from Stewart Little and making a new piece with them that has nothing to do
with the book. I’d like to remount and
tour a puppet version I did of Marki Shalloe’s One Hand Clapping. It’s a
great short script about masturbating. And I’ve got a puppet I love that is a blue monster, with a cool way of
working the hands. But I just can’t make
any material stick. Maybe some day. Also, it’s not my piece, but I’d love
to see Nicole’s Chucky piece get a little longer and go on tour. It is so well done.

M: Where can people contact you to perform?

EB: The best thing they can do is call or email me. kolohepuppet@gmail.com or (808)457-9324. I’ll probably screen the
calls, so make sure to leave a message.

M: What is the future of puppet slams?

EB: I would really love to see some of our young puppeteers get to work the
circuit nationally and bring back here what they learn. And now that I’ve produced a slam I’d love to
return to Atlanta where I was at best a fringe meteor to the puppet scene and
watch the slams there with a whole new perspective. As for the future of the Puppet Slam Network,
I’ll probably look like an idiot if I make any predictions.

M: What advice do you have for up and coming slam artists just starting
out?

EB: I’d tell them to give me advice.
I am making this shit up as I go and I really have no idea what I’m
doing.

M: Anything else we should know?

EB: Don’t sleep with a raccoon in your bed. You are always welcome to come here and
perform, I’ll do whatever I can with my meager resources to help (also contact
promoter Tim Bostock). But don’t come
here with a lame-ass I’m on vacation attitude.
Don’t bring rabies to the islands.